A bench of Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar imposed a fine of Rs.50,000 on All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) for permitting an engineering college in Maharashtra to operate despite its failure to fulfill the requisite norms.

The fine to be recovered from the salaries of the erring officials would be payable to the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee, according to the Supreme Court order.

Parshvanath Engineering College, run by Parshvanath Charitable Trust, situated in Thane was established in 1993-94 by Shri Ashok Bhai Shah after getting all clearances from the concerned authorities including AICTE. However the college shifted to another place without taking the clearance and has been running almost for two academic years without the fulfilling the requisite norms and approval therefor from AICTE.